An Alaska man killed in a moose attack was trying to take photos of newborn calves, cops say

A 70-year-old Alaska man who tried to take photos of two newborn moose calves was attacked and killed by their mother, authorities said Monday.

The man killed Sunday was identified as Dale Chorman of Homer, said Austin McDaniel, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

The female moose had recently given birth to calves at Homer.

“As they were walking through the brush looking for the elk, the cow elk attacked Dale,” McDaniel said.

The attack occurred as the two were running away, he said. The second man, whose identity was not publicly released, was uninjured.

That person did not witness the attack, so authorities cannot say whether the moose killed Chorman by kicking or kicking him, or a combination of both.

Paramedics pronounced Chorman dead at the scene. The cow moose had left the area, Alaska State Troopers said in an online post.

The Anchorage Daily News reported that his son, Nathan Spence-Chorman, posted on social media that his father “died on his property while trudging through the woods with a good friend looking for a great photo.”

“Dale was very experienced in dealing with wildlife. He was intimately familiar with nature and was not naive about its dangers. This wasn’t an unfortunate fool blundering into danger – he was a person who set out to take a great photo and knew the risks. and entered a dangerous moment,” Nathan Spence-Chorman wrote, according to the newspaper, adding: “The moose is obviously not to blame.”

In 1995, a female moose trampled a 71-year-old man to death as he attempted to enter a building on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus. Witnesses said the students threw snowballs and harassed the moose and its calf for hours, and the animals became agitated when the man tried to walk past them. This moose was killed by wildlife officials.

In Alaska, a state of about 737,000 people, there are up to 200,000 moose.

According to the state Department of Fish and Game website, the animals are not typically aggressive but can become aggressive if provoked.

A cow elk is very protective of young calves and will attack people who get too close, the department says.

“Calving season for elk is the time when you definitely want to give them extra space,” McDaniel said. “Cow elk with calves are some of the more aggressive elk you come into contact with.”

People should not scare the animals or get between a mother and her calves, he said.

“These moose are becoming unpredictable and will work at all costs to protect their calves,” McDaniel said.

According to Fish and Game, a small adult female moose, the largest of the deer family, can weigh up to 800 pounds, while a large adult male can weigh twice that. The animals can reach a height of nearly 6 feet.

Last September, a moose attacked and a woman injured and her dog in Colorado. Authorities said the cow elk head-butted the woman and stomped on her several times. Just a few days earlier, a moose had attacked in Colorado and trampled a hiker whose dog began barking at the animal as he walked along a path.